A Little
Maid Witnesses for God
Now
Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his
master . . . : he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the
Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her
mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he
would recover him of his leprosy. 2 Kings 5:1-3.
A slave, far from her home, this little
maid was nevertheless one of God's witnesses, unconsciously fulfilling the
purpose for which God had chosen Israel as His people. As she ministered in
that heathen home, her sympathies were aroused in behalf of her master; and,
remembering the wonderful miracles of healing wrought through Elisha, she said
to her mistress, "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in
Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." She knew that the power
of Heaven was with Elisha, and she
believed that by this power Naaman could be healed.
The conduct of the captive maid, the way
that she bore herself in that heathen home, is a strong witness to the power of
early home training. There is no higher trust than that committed to fathers
and mothers in the care and training of their children. . . .
We know not in what line our children may
be called to serve. They may spend their lives within the circle of the home;
they may engage in life's common
vocations, or go as teachers of the gospel to heathen lands; but all are alike
called to be missionaries for God, ministers of mercy to the world. . . .
The parents of that Hebrew maid, as they
taught her of God, did not know the destiny that would be hers. But they were
faithful to their trust; and in the home of the captain of the Syrian host,
their child bore witness to the God whom she had learned to honor.
From My Life Today - Page 227
